REDWOOD CITY — A day after Scott Peterson spent his 32nd birthday in a San Mateo County jail cell, his mother and father took the stand in his capital murder trial to try to reconcile some of the facts surrounding his arrest that prosecutors have seized on.

Called on the fifth day of testimony in the defense case, Jackie Peterson told jurors that she gave her son the more than $14,000 in cash that police found on him when he was arrested April 18, 2003. She said the cash was payment for his Dodge pickup truck, which he sold to his brother.

Prosecutors pointed to the cash as evidence that Scott was planning an escape to Mexico. Police also found camping and survival gear, clothing and a number of credit cards in the car he was driving. Defense attorney Mark Geragos and Peterson’s family say he was living a nomadic life in his car by that point, which is why he had all of those items and the cash.

Jackie Peterson said she gave her son more money than she initially intended because she made a banking error when withdrawing the cash.

Prosecutor Rick Distaso implied that her story did not make sense. He said that she and her husband had been giving their son money for months. “I don’t think so,” she said when asked if she gave her son $5,000 in February 2003.

The bodies of Scott’s wife. Laci, and their unborn child had washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay a few days earlier but had yet been identified.

Scott Peterson had canceled on the golf outing with his father and brothers.

Peterson told his brother that he would “skip (golf) because I don’t think they want a picture of me in the press playing golf,” according to a recorded phone call from that morning caught by police wiretaps.

Family supported Scott until news of Frey

Laci’s family and friends rallied behind Peterson in the weeks after the expectant woman disappeared. But that all changed after they learned of Peterson’s extra-marital affair with Amber Frey, Geragos claimed Monday.

Geragos called Craig Grogan, the lead Modesto detective on the case, to highlight this point. Grogan was in constant contact with Laci’s family in those days.

The defense attorney pointed out that Laci’s mother, Sharon Rocha, did not recall that Peterson used the word “missing” in his frantic call to her on Dec. 24, 2002 until more than a month later. Rocha testified that she found it odd that Peterson chose that word.

Prosecutors Birgit Fladager, in her cross-examination of Grogan, argued that Rocha’s late recollection of the “missing” comment stemmed from the fact that she did not want to think “Scott had something to do with Laci’s disappearance.”

After Peterson’s parents’ testimony, Geragos questioned a Modesto police officer who arrested a man who confessed to robbing the house across the street from the home of Scott and Laci Peterson. Officer Michael Hicks said the man told him he had nothing to do “with that missing woman with the baby.” Geragos contends that police excused the robber as a suspect too quickly because they were focused on Scott.

The trial is expected to wrap up by the end of the week. Closing arguments are scheduled for Nov. 1 and 2.

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